Test Centre for Disabled to Move from the 13th Floor

March 7, 2012

Disabled motorhome drivers with an interest in motorhome insurance will be delighted with the news that Liverpool Council have at last agreed to move their blue badge testing centre.

Incredibly disabled drivers have been expected to visit the testing centre which is on the thirteenth floor of a building with a broken lift! The building in Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, is a temporary home for the blue badge testing department but it is hard to imagine a worse place for it. The situation came to light when a disgruntled motorhome driver wrote to his local councillor saying: “The lift in the city centre Mount Pleasant car park – where the office is based – stops two levels short of the roof. A set of stairs has to be negotiated before emerging at the correct level and having done this there is a long walk for someone of limited ability. It seems ludicrous that the council could not find a more appropriate setting for a disability assessment office than one that is a trial in every sense of the word.”

Councillor Steve Radford who received the complaint was amazed to find that his constituent’s letter was completely true and asked the council leaders for an explanation. A spokesman for the council said they realised that the test centre was not in an “ideal situation” but was only temporary and would soon be moved to a ground floor office.

A spokesman from a leading disabled peoples’ pressure group said it was just another case of councils being insensitive to the needs of disabled people and commented: “It is almost as though it’s a tongue in cheek joke isn’t it – let’s put the disabled motorist’s office high up in a tower block.” The council spokesman could not give a date when the centre would be moved but expected it to be within four weeks.